Final Destination: College Crisis
by LOSTfan93
Summary: A chilling story of a teen's premonition of a terrible tragedy at his new school. They must figure out if there is a maniac after them or if death itself has returned to finish the job, WARNING: vivid descriptions of gore. First fanfic btw.
1. Chapter 1

One average night, Joey Henderson, 18, lay sleeping peacefully in his apartment. He was having a dream. It was back to a day in middle school he could never forget, but he never thought it would come up again.

He was walking home with his friend Michelle Whitney. She had long, beautiful, golden-brown hair and he had very strong feelings for her. "Look", Joey started, "I know we've talked about this before but why can't you just give me a chance? One date that's all. If that doesn't do anything for you I'll back off. Please that's all." She uttered a sigh of anger. "Dammit, Joey," she stooped and so did he. "I've tried to look past this so that we can still be friends but if you keep bringing it up I don't know how long i can hold out." "Michelle, I just want a chance to be with-" "Look," she snapped, "I know this is going to be cruel but I don't know how else I can make it clear; you saving me from death itself may be the only way we could ever have a chance together." She looked into his eyes to make sure he understood while a lone tear rolled down her face."So," she said, "until that happens... just stop it. Just accept that all we'll ever be is friends. Really close friends." And with that she ran off crying. "Michelle!" he called after her.

The next thing he knew, it was the day after that and he was in the gym talking to his friends Amy Copperfield and Jackie Ferron. "Come on, Joey!" Jackie said, "You need to get over her. Find someone new." "Is that an offer?" he said jokingly. The three of them laughed. "She's right though Joey," Amy said, "forget about her. Give us one reason you need to risk exploding with the stress from this." A grin crossed his face signaling a stupid remark...and that it was. He began in a British accent, "My love for her is like a roaring wildfire..." He paused to hold back the laugh that was building up and continued, "...it is very hard to put out." The three of them burst out laughing and suddenly he was floating in a white room while three things roared in his ears: death itself, explosion, and wildfire.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH" he woke up in his apartment screaming. "God that was weird" he said to himself. He looked over at the picture of him and all of his friends outside of his future college. It was a new college in California built from the leftover money from fundraisers after a horrible plane crash he had never heard of. Volee flight 180! It was called TRAGIC University. Something a few parents made up telling victims' parents To Remember All Good's In Cognito. It didn't stick with many people because...well...just think about it. Joey and his closest friends would be attending that school in just two days and tomorrow they would get a full tour and learn what classes they would be taking. "He stared at the picture for a while and said; "I'm ready for anything you can throw at me" He set the picture back down on the table and drifted back to sleep.

A few minutes later, a cool breeze blew throughout the apartment. It ran across an old banner from a few weeks ago that read "Happy 18 Birthday". The breeze flipped over the corner of the banner leaving only Happy 18 and the bottom of B so that it looked somewhat like "Happy 18o". The breeze continued through over to a lit candle. The flame twitched around a little bit and lit a straight line of fire over a grass green piece of paper. The flame burned for a few minutes and then ignited a model of a school that was sitting right next to it. Then, a suddenly and mysteriously as the small fire had happened, it stopped


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Joey woke up more eager than he'd ever been before. He rushed into the bathroom to begin getting ready for the day ahead. He took a quick shower and came out to begin toweling off.

While he did so, he felt a sort of unknown presence. He stopped for a moment to survey his surroundings and then dismissed the feeling. After he was dressed, he went over to the mirror to begin shaving.

He looked in the mirror and saw a dark, shadow-like "cloud". Startled, he jumped up and turned around, his razor pointed forward in an attacking position. There was nothing in sight.

He walked out of the bathroom and looked around the apartment. He noticed the burnt model of a school and ran over to it. "God Damn how did this happen?" he shouted, "I spent a whole damn month on this thing and now it's ruined."

He looked at the ruins that used to be his masterpiece. Columns were tipped over, roofs were caved in, and windows were destroyed. Just then, he felt the presence again. He started walking around again and jumped when his phone rang. "Hello?" he answered in a startled voice. "Joey?" the other voice said. He knew that voice better than any other particularly because it was...

"Michelle! What's up?" "Are you okay," she asked, obviously sensing the fear in his voice, "you seem scared. Have a bad dream?" "Umm...yeah, I did. How'd you know?" "You know, women's intuition."

"That's not what's got me worried though. I uh-never mind." "No, tell me." "I just have a feeling that something's here, nothing major. Not that I'm complaining but why did you call?" "I just had this feeling that something was wrong with you. I can't really explain it."

"Well aside from the dream and the paranoia everything's great. So are you going to the tour thing today for college?" "Yeah, what time does it start? I lost the form." Joey looked over at his clock. It was 7:30. "It starts at noon. I'll be leaving at about 11:30. You need a ride?" "No I'll catch a ride from my roommate. She's headed that way about that time." "Well, that's not what I wanted to hear." "What?" "Nothing. Guess I'll see you later, bye."

He walked over to his bead to relax for a while before running a few errands since he didn't need to give Michelle a ride. He plopped down, turned on the TV, and looked over at the picture of him and his friends again.

He stood on the left. Next to him was Michelle. Then it was Amy, Jackie, Michael Heinemann, Kenny Fuller, Brent Dreyer, Tony Nygren, Andy Livingston, and Omar Somers. Then there was the group's couple Cali Lasher and Tyler Eagan. Finally, there was the person that nobody really liked but they'd felt bad for him since middle school so they decided to accept him as a "friend". His name was Will Auburn. They usually want nothing to do with him but they still invite him to go places with them just to be nice.

Joey began thinking about all the years they knew each other and how he was afraid they would be separated this year but everything was going great and they would stay friends for at least one more year. The next thing he knew it was 10:00. "Oh shit!" he shouted. He ran over to the key rack, got his keys, and went out to do his errands.

He arrived at the college gates at about 11:30 and saw all of his friends waiting there. "Hey guys," he said as he got out of the car, "I didn't think you would all be here." "Well we are." Michael said.

"Yes, you are," a voice said. Startled, they all turned around to see who it was. Through the bars of the gate, they saw a tall man in a black suit standing there. "You have come for the tour no doubt." "Um...yeah," Joey said, "Who are you?" "I am the dean, Dean Rivers" the man replied. "Well then, hello Dean Rivers," Joey replied.

"So," Michael began, "when will everyone else be here?" "Oh they're already inside." "Wait, why?" Joey asked, "The paper says the tour begins at noon." "Oh it does but if any of you had bothered to read you would know that schedules were passed out at 10:00 along with teacher introductions for students."

He looked at his clip board and took a small stack of papers off of it. "We only have 13 schedules left so I'm going to assume these are yours." He handed Joey the stack of papers through the bars of the gate and the group all found and compared their schedules.

"Well now, let's go," Dean Rivers said as he opened the gate, "the others have started their tours so I will show you around the school." The group of young adults followed the dean through the gates and into the school.

They traveled all over the school down hallways, up stairs, through doors, and past groups. As the tour progressed, they were more and more excited at where they would be spending their next 4 years at least.

"And this is our cafeteria," the dean said as they walked into the doors of the cafeteria, "Of course this is an open campus so you don't necessarily have to eat our food. We grantee that all our food is safe, though, along with everything else at our school. The only thing we have a problem with is the fact that we are using gas stoves. We plan to change those about midway through the year along with the wooden door back there. I don't know who designed this campus but they practically made this cafeteria a death trap."

He looked over at the sudden nervous expressions on the future students' faces. "We don't foresee anything bad happening ever though so no need to worry." He gave a kind of nervous laugh.

After the tour, the group started heading out to their cars. As everybody got in their cars, Joey noticed something.

"Hey Michelle," he said, "where's your ride?" "I uh..." "You what?" " I told her not to come get me." "Why would you do that" "I was kind of hoping to go home with you." Joey was instantly excited.

"Don't get any ideas," Michelle said, noticing the look in his eyes, "It's not because I want to go out with you. I just feel like something is wrong and I need to be with someone else besides my roommate." "Why me though?"

"Honestly, you're the only one I can trust. I know that if something happened, you'd do all you could to protect me. You would do that right?" "Of course. Well we should probably get to my place, hop in."

When they got to his apartment, they felt a slight breeze when they walked in.

"Did you leave a window open?" Michelle asked. They both looked around the room but all the windows were closed. "It doesn't look like it." Joey said. "Well maybe it was the air conditioner." Michelle suggested. "Couldn't be." Joey replied, looking around the room with a puzzled expression. "Why not."

"Two reasons actually. If it was the AC we would still feel the breeze." "What's the second reason?"

"This is the real interesting one. My air conditioner broke last week."

They both felt something bad was going to happen soon. Michelle suddenly noticed the burnt model of the school. "What happened to that?" Michelle asked.

"I don't know," Joey said, "I just woke up and it was like that." "Something bad is going on," she said, "I just know it." She began to cry. "Come here," Joey said giving her a hug, "everything is going to be just fine. We'll all be fine. I promise."


	3. Chapter 3

Joey woke up on his couch the next morning at 5:00 AM and, to his surprise, saw Michelle setting up the table. "Good morning," she said, "how'd you sleep?" "Well," he said, standing up and looking at the breakfast being prepared, "apparently a hell of a lot better than you. How long have you been making this?" "About an hour."

"Okay, so you got some sleep." He looked around and saw his apartment almost completely spotless. "You did sleep right?" "About an hour." She sat two plates down on the table full of food. "Come eat. You need some food." She said. "And you need your sleep. Now we're even. Go ahead and eat but then you're getting some rest."

"Fine but you're going back to sleep too," she said, "I heard you tossing and turning last night. You need your rest too." "No. I might not have slept well but i did actually sleep. You slept way less than i did. After we're done, you're going to sleep and I'm going to do the dishes. Agreed?" "No, you need go back to sl--" "Agreed?"

There was a long pause. "Agreed," she said, feeling defeated, "Now come over and eat."

Later, breakfast had been eaten eaten, Michelle had been sleeping, and the dishes had been done. Joey looked around for a moment at his newly cleaned apartment. He saw two things in particular still in the place: the burnt school model and the wind-blown banner that read "Happy 18o". Joey could feel a connection between the two but couldn't put a finger on it. _What is 18o anyway?_ He thought to himself. _It kinda looks like it might be 180. Weird. _

He then began to wonder why these two things were still where they had been. If michelle was cleaning, the first logical thing would be to sweep up the model's ashes and then pick up the banner.

His thoughts were interrupted by a terrible scream from Michelle. "What happened?" he asked, rushing over to her. "I had this dream," she said, "this really bad dream." "Michelle, aren't we a little old to be screaming about 'bad dreams'?" "No,this was different! This was just weird. We were being chased--all of us. You, me, Cali, Tyler, Jackie, our whole little group or whatever you want to call us. We were on this narrow road, too. And the college was behind us.

This thing was coming after us. It was this scary guy in a black robe and we kept running but he kept getting closer. Then he caught up and he started pushing us off one at a time. Everyone would scream but they never stopped--they never hit the bottom. Then he got me and as I was falling i watched _you_ fighting him. He almost fell off, too, but you slipped or something and then he looked over and just watched us all fall.

That's when I woke up. Can we skip today, please?" "Are you crazy? You want to skip the first day?" "I just have this feeling." "I 'just had this feeling' yesterday but that won't stop me. I told you, we're a little old to be screaming about bad dreams. I'm sorry but I'm going and I'm not leaving you here. You should start getting ready. We still have to stop by your place so you can change your clothes."

Joey looked at Michelle's pleading eyes. He'd never seen her like this before and he kind of felt bad for her. He actually began to consider skipping

He spoke instead. "Look," he said, "Yesterday, you said you wanted to come over because you knew I'd protect you if something happened. . . and I will. But nothing's happening right now. Something may happen later and I swear that I'll protect you then. But for now, we just need to go on with life. OK?" "OK," she said, "just give me a minute."

Halfway through their first day, Joey and Michelle were standing in a circle with their friends, talking before they all went to their next classes. Amy, Cali, Tyler, and Will were going to head to the cafeteria to get some food due to the fact that all of them were broke and the food was free; Andy, Brent, Omar, and Tony were going to a math class, all suspecting they'd have an 'F' soon enough; Jackie, Joey, Kenny, Michael, and Michelle were going to a science class, which they were all dreading.

". . .and she totally freaked out!" Tyler said, finishing a story. Everyone busted out laughing except for Cali. "It wasn't funny," she said, "I coulda had a heart attack or something." "Oh lighten up, babe," Tyler said, "Besides, I think I made up for that later when I--"

"Stop right there," Jackie said, "we don't wanna hear any of that." Michelle started laughing. _Joey was right_, she thought, _nothing bad has happened and_ _nothing_ _bad is going to happen at all_. She looked over at Joey and saw him staring blankly like he was in some sort of trance. "Joey!" she yelled.

Joey "woke up", alarmed and looked around. "Sorry," he said, "I guess I'm just a little tired." "I told you to go back to sleep," Michelle said, "and i'm willing to bet anything that you didn't" "Well. . ." he began.

A man that looked like he might be a professor began power walking in their direction. "Shit!" he exclaimed, "I'm gonna be late!" He began to jog and eventually started running. He tripped on his untied shoelace right by the group and they all began laughing.

"Hey," Joey said to the man, "don't trip." The whole group laughed again and the man started to run to wherever it was he was going. "Maybe we should start moving," Will suggested. "Shut up, Will!" Tyler said.

"He's right," Joey said, "We should get to our classes." The group decided he was right, said their goodbyes, and went their separate ways.

In the cafeteria, Will found some of the new friends he'd made earlier and began talking to them while Amy decided that she was not hungry and sat down at a table and started reading a book. Tyler and Cali both went into the line and began their long wait for food.

Andy, Brent, Omar, and Tony got to their classroom and sat down, observing their surroundings. Omar sat down next to the most beautiful looking girl he'd ever seen. In his mind, he decided that she must be an angel that had fallen to earth and he was determined to get to know her. He stared at her for awhile when the girl noticed she was being watched.

"Can I help you?" she asked. "Oh I'm sorry," Omar said, "it's just that I've never seen anything so beautiful." "Aww, thank you." They both smiled at each other for a moment and then the girl turned away, obviously blushing.

_Oh yeah_ Omar thought _this is going to be a great year_.

Jackie, Joey, Kenny, Michael, and Michelle made their way to their class and took their seats as well. After a few moments of silence, the teacher, Professor Warner as he introduced himself, began to ramble as most professors do. Joey, being extremely bored and tired, began to fall asleep.

In a nearby forest, the sun shown down on this seemingly perfect day. A magnifying glass lay in an open field surrounded by the trees in the forest. The sun shown down on it, the magnifying glass intensifying the rays. After a few moments, a flame flared up in the grass. A slight breeze began to blow towards the school and the fire began to grow larger and spread, rather than being extinguished. Soon the whole field was on fire and the flames were headed towards the school.

Back in the cafeteria, Cali and Tyler got up to the front of the line only to notice that there was no more food. The student in front of them had taken the last of what was there. "Just give us a moment." A lady told them as she went into the back and fired up all six of the stoves.

Unknowingly, she set the gas on them up a little too high. Two of the stoves were up against the back next to the wooden door. There were two more on the left and the other two were on the right.

Tyler and Cali stood on the line looking very impatient. Will looked over, noticed this, and decided to try and help. "Hey, what's goin' on?" he asked. "Nothing, Will," Cali said, "we just have to wait for them to make us more food cause they're too damn stupid to be prepared." The end of this sentece was purposefully increased in volume

"I'll go see if I can hurry them up," he said as he started walking away. "No, Will," Cali called after him but it was no use. He was determined to help. "Tyler," she said, "go do something." "What do you want me to do, shoot him?" "I don't know but I don't want that freak touching my food." "Just calm down it's not like you're gonna die or anything. Besides, he just wants to help." "Forget it." She stormed off into the back to get Will out.

Outside, the fire was about ten feet away from the school and began to spread more rapidly as the wind picked up. Eventually, it managed to spread to the back door and began to burn through.

"Will," Cali said, "can you please get out of here." "I'm just trying to help," he said, "gimme a break." He walked over to the back door and leaned against it, noticing a significant temperature difference. "Is it hot in here to you," Will asked. "Will," Cali began, "If you're coming on to me, I swear, I'm gonna--" She stopped as he began to jump around. "Is this some sort of freak mating dance?"she asked and then he turned around.

His shoes and the bottom of his jeans had somehow caught fire. She looked down and saw that the origin of the flame was the fire at the bottom of the back door. "FIRE!" she screamed.

Tyler was the only one that heard and he relayed the message to everyone else in there. Immediately there was a mad dash to the door accompanied by screams. "Cali," Tyler yelled, "get out of there." Thinking she had heard him, he began running away.

Cali was too busy trying to extinguish the flames burning will to notice what was about to happen. He was jumping and spinning around and didn't seem to notice where he was heading. He bumped into one of the stoves and that was it. A chain of deadly explosions had been set in motion. The gas ignited in the air and a giant fire ball was produced, heading out from the back. Will and Cali, both dead instantly, flew with it.

Tyler had just begun to jump over a table when the fire ball was born. He tripped in mid jump and landed in between two tables, trapped, as he was engulfed in fire.

Amy was almost to the door everyone was fleeing from when she felt the explosion and saw the result. Those leaving were crushed by pieces of the building that were shaken free. Those that were still inside were trapped by the newly created rubble barrier. Amy turned to head for another door. She saw what was headed for her but her brain did not have enough time to register the flames before they killed her.

The giant ball of fire got to the end of the building. Having nowhere else to go, it forced a way out through the windows and roof which caused the whole building to explode. Flying chunks of flaming building and many dead bodies were sent flying through the air.

Omar sat in class thinking about the wonderful girl sitting next to him when he looked out the window next to her. A giant piece of flaming debris was headed straight for the girl. _Where is that coming from?_ he wondered. He quickly dismissed that thought and went for a more important matter.

"Hey--" he began but stopped as he realized he didn't know her name. That didn't matter though. She, along with every other living soul turned and looked at him. "Look out!" he screamed. When he saw that she was not moving, he took matters into his own hands.

He jumped out of his seat and tackled the girl to the ground. Less than a second later, the debris came crashing through the window. Omar jumped to his feet the moment he heard it enter. The chunk of whatever it was landed directly on the girl he had just tackled, sending him flying backwards from the force of the impact.

He flew through the air to the other side of the room and was impaled by the patriotic flag of the United States. Everybody stopped for a second and looked at what had happened in a matter of seconds. Then, another piece flew into the class room and everyone ran to join the newly established panic outside.

Andy, Tony, and Brent all ran for the door. Somehow, Andy fell behind and the door closed before he got out. He reached to open it when debris from the outside crashed in front of the door and blocked it. "HELP!" Andy screamed. Then he turned around as he heard an explosion.

Somehow, the microwave in the room--why it was there he did not know--had been blown through the air and was heading towards him.  
Tony heard Andy's cry for help and turned around.

He looked through the window just in time to see a microwave splatter Andy's brains across it and then crash through. What was still intact of Andy's head rolled on the floor.

Tony heard several more explosions as chunks of building crashed into boiler rooms, sending more debris into the air. One piece landed right by the floor-to-ceiling windows he was standing next to and shards of glass flew at him, slicing him is several places; some of them went all the way through him. He fell to the ground and could not move no matter how much he tried. Though he wasn't a medical expert, he knew major arteries had been sliced

"Help me!" he cried out, "someone please help me!"

Brent was only a couple feet away from the screaming person. He knew exactly who it was but he couldn't bring himself to stop and look. Finally, Tony called him by name, pleading once again for help. That stopped him dead in his tracks and he did not know why. He turned and started to run towards Tony when he saw the roof begin to buckle. It was going to cave in.

He knew Tony didn't have a chance. The supports finally gave and hundreds of pounds of brick and rubble fell on top of Tony. Blood and bits of organs and flesh flew through the air. Brent was startled when much of it got on him and he began to back away from the gruesome scene.

He looked around and saw that much of the building had fallen apart and pieces were everywhere. Then, he tripped over a rock and onto a broken pole that went through at the back of his head. Before he died, he noticed that he could see a piece of his brain on the pole, dripping with blood. He had no time to think about it though.

As the rest of the school was panicking from the havoc, Professor Warner continued teaching his class, all of whom had no idea what was going on outside. Professor Warner paused in his speech as he saw Joey sleeping on the desk. He picked up a ruler and nonchalantly walked over to Joey. He slammed it on the desk, simultaneously saying, "Sleeping on the first day Mr. Henderson?"

Joey jumped out of his slumber and looked around the room, embarrassed because of what had happened. This silence allowed them all to hear muffled screams and explosions from outside. "What is going on out there," Professor Warner asked, walking towards the door. As soon as he looked through the glass on the door, a huge, flaming, rock-like mass crashed through the door and splattered him. This, naturally, sent everyone into panic.

Everyone began to run as another piece crashed through the chalkboard and crushed Kenny. This sent tiny, sharp pieces of chalkboard into the air, one of which went straight through Michael's neck and stuck there. He grabbed at it and choked as blood poured from the hole in his neck and mouth, screaming until he eventually went silent. Joey grabbed Jackie and Michelle's hands and started to run. Jackie stood where she was and Joey and Michelle were jerked back.

"We have to get the hell outta here," Joey said, "come on." "Yeah," Michelle agreed, "if we stay here we'll die."

"I can't move," she said, "I'm too scared. Just go without me." "No," Joey protested, "you're coming with us." A man came up and pushed Jackie, "Go!" Joey saw that Jackie was off guard now and seized the opportunity to drag her with them.

They ran through the hall towards the stairs. Along the way, getting some sort of courage from adrenaline, Jackie broke loose and ran ahead. She turned and ran backwards, looking at Joey and Michelle to say: "Come on. Hurry up!" She didn't notice the role reversal nor how close she was to the stairs and there was no time to warn her. She broke through the bar and fell to the next flight. Her neck landed directly on a stair and cracked.

Joey and Michelle continued to run. Down the hall, down the stairs (ignoring the body), and out to the courtyard. They noticed that the gym was unharmed and decided to run to that as it seemed safe. As they ran, flames and rocks continued to rain from the sky in seemingly endless amounts. They were practically tripping over bodies and peices of the bodies on almost every step and the screams were becoming less plentiful as more people died.

They made it to the gym and ran inside; they were too worried about living to be logical. If they had thought, they would know this building had to eventually get hit as well. When they got inside, though, they saw it already had been hit. The scoreboard was hanging from the roof next to a hole. In the stands was the piece of building that caused it.

Joey heard a liquid pouring on the ground and smelled something unpleasant. He stopped a few feet from the entrance as Michelle kept going. He heard another explosion outside and then he knew what he smelled. "Michelle," he screamed, "there's gas in here!" "So," she asked, "what does that mean." As soon as that was out of her mouth, a flaming chunk from the newer explosion broke another hole in the roof and then lit the whole place up.

Michelle died as soon as the flames were produced. Joey was not that lucky. He was thrown through the door he was by and landed hard onto the concrete. He couldn't move from the pain and was sure he had broken at least half of his bones. He listened for the sounds of screaming people that could help him. There were none.

He wondered,_ am I the only one left?_ He lay there and thought about everything that had just happened and a tear formed in his eye. He did not know whether it was shock or pain. He settled on a little of both. He tried to think of a reason gas would be pouring out of a roof in a gym when the pain got unbearable. "Please," he screamed, "make it stop!" No sooner than the words left his mouth did he hear an ominous creak. He looked and noticed the biggest palm tree he'd ever seen (or maybe in the world from the looks of it) was about to topple onto him. "NO," he screamed, "NO! that's not what I--" and the tree crushed him.


	4. Chapter 4

"Joey!"

He jumped at the familiar sound and tone of Michelle's voice. He looked around to confirm what he already knew: nothing had happened. . .yet. He couldn't explain it but somehow he knew it was going to happen exactly as he saw it.

"We have to get out of here," Joey said in a panicked voice, and when no one budged he added, "NOW! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" He looked as they all stared at him with mixed expressions. Some were scared, some were worried, but most were skeptical.

"Calm down, Joey," Michelle said, "everything's fine. You said so yourself this morning."

"Well I fucking lied okay," he said, "I'm full of shit. Happy? Now let's go. If we stay here we're all going to die! Let's go!"

"What the fuck are you talking about," Tyler asked, "Are you some sort of psychic now?"

He began to rationalize things. He was tired and that's what probably caused the. . .whatever that was. That had to be it. Other than Michelle shouting his name, nothing was the same as it was. Of course it wouldn't be the same dumb-ass he thought you can't see something like that and expect it to play out the same, right? Let's face it. It was a hallucination brought on by lack of sleep. That's exactly what it--

A man that looked like he might be a professor began power walking in their direction. "Shit!" he exclaimed, "I'm gonna be late!" He began to jog and eventually started running. He tripped right by the group and they all began laughing except for Joey. Hey, Joey could remember himself saying to the man, don't trip. The whole group would have laughed again and the man would start to run to wherever it was he was going. He then began to run to wherever it was he was going. . . again.

That's it Joey thought We're getting out of here now. "Look," he said, "I don't know what just happened to me but I saw us all die."

"And how is that," Andy asked. "How the fuck could you see us all die?"

"Dammit, Andy, I don't know. But i did. And it was horrible."

"Screw this," Tyler said, "I'm going to the cafeteria."

"No," Joey said, "you can't, that's where it starts."

"Where what starts?"

"The whole chain of events that kills us all. Well actually it begins somewhere else but that's where people start to die and--"

"Okay," Andy said," I'll bite. How do we die?"

"It depends on who it was. It started with a wildfire in the woods, okay? First you die," he pointed to Will, "and then you," he pointed to Cali. He went down his list of who died and when and only when he got to the end did he realize what little sense he was making.

"Let's just go," Joey said, "come on." He walked away and turned when he realized that no one was following him. He looked pleadingly at all of them, hoping they would come. Michelle was the first to cave. Then Jackie and Brent. Eventually they all joined him except for Andy and Tyler.

"Not happening," Tyler said, "I'm hungry and I'm going to get food."

"Come on," Cali pleaded, "for me."

"Look," Joey said, "I will take you out to a restaurant and pay for everything you get if you just come."

Tyler hesitated for a second and then agreed to come.

"Andy," Joey said, "let's go!"

"No! This is all bullshit. You're lucky you got the rest of them with you and you know if it wasn't for Cali, Tyler would be right here."

"Okay," Joey said, "Fuck it. Just stay stay here and fuckin' die, Andy."

"Joey," Michelle said, "You can't just leave him here."

"He's not coming, Michelle. Besides we're running out of time. We can't stay here and wait for him."

"Please, Joey. He's our friend."

Joey stood there with a strained expression on his face. He sighed and turned to face Andy.

"I'll tell you what, Andy. If this place doesn't go to hell in the next five minutes I'll give you a hundred dollars. Okay?"

"Hot damn! You got yourself a deal."

Joey led them to a distance far enough from the school where he thought they'd be safe.

"Can you tell us what the fuck is going on now" Michael asked, "I think we have the right to know what you 'saw' don't we?"

"I guess."

Joey stood there and tried to remember what he had seen.

"Right now, there's a magnifying glass in the middle of a field out there," he pointed over to the nearby forest, "and pretty soon the rays from the sun are going to ignite that field."

"This is bull," Tyler said.

"Then the wind is going to start blowing it towards the cafeteria."

The wind began to blow. Nobody noticed.

"Right about now, Cali would have gone in the back. Will had gone back earlier to tell the staff to get more food out. She didn't want him touching her food. She was trying to bring him back out. Then they argued for a little bit and will leaned against the back door. He caught on fire cause the fire from the forest had worked it's way to the back door. It was made of wood for some reason. Then he hit one of the gas stoves and. . . boom. Wait a minute!"

"What is it," Michelle asked,"are we safe?"

"Maybe. If Will caused this and he's not back there. . .maybe it won't happen. Cali and Will would have died and then Tyler fell trying to get away from the giant fireball that was created. And Amy tries to get out but the explosion shook some of the building loose so the doors were blocked. And once the flames got to the door, the whole place just exploded."

Andy stood looking at his watch. "Get ready to pay up, Joey. We're at four minutes, fifty seconds. Fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three fif--"

"Hey," Jackie said, "Does anyone else hear screaming?"

They did.

"fifty six, fifty seven. . ."

"No," Joey said, "Will's not there! It shouldn't--"

The cafeteria exploded.

"It just took longer," Joey said, barely aware of what he was saying, almost in a daze, "will not being there wouldn't just stop it from happening. It would just make it take longer. How did I--"

They all watched as burning chunks and bodies were thrown everywhere, setting off more explosions.

"Duck!" Kenny shouted.

Joey looked up and saw that a huge piece of their soon-to-be former college was flying in their direction.

Everyone dropped to the ground except for Will.

"What are you guys doing?"

He looked up and saw it. But it was too late.

It came down, hitting him in the head.

The force was so great that his head was perfectly separated from the rest of his body, which remained standing for about ten seconds.

Everyone stood up as soon as Will's body hit the ground. The blood began to spread on the pavement.

"What the fuck," Tyler said to Joey, "did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Joey stood there in disbelief. "I--I--I didn't do anything. I tried to stop it, I--" He couldn't believe that this was actually happening. He knew that he would wake up from this any second.

He didn't. 


	5. Chapter 5

They all stood there and looked at the destruction before them. The fire behind the school had now engulfed the entire forest, but the flames seemed to have begun to die down. Everyone had their eyes focused in different directions, hoping against hope that they'd see someone crawling out from the rubble. After all, they couldn't be the only survivors, could they?

"We are," Joey said, breaking the silence of the last five minutes. He had seen the question practically written on all their faces.

"We are what?" Tyler asked, knowing full well what the answer was.

"You're all wondering," Joey said, "if we're the only ones that made it. We are."

"How the fuck do you know that?" Tyler challenged.

"I don't know, Tyler. How fuck do you think I knew this damn place was gonna blow? In case you don't remember, I saw this all go down. I was the last one left at the end. Everyone else was—"

"Oh, how convenient for you. Congratulations, Joey, you fucking outlived us all. How do we know you didn't plan this?"

"That's what I want to know," said an approaching police officer. "I've been listening to you guys for a few minutes. Young man, how exactly did you know this was going to happen?"

"Who the fuck are you," Tyler asked, "and what the fuck are you doing here?"

"I'm Officer Conner. My station got a call about an explosion, and we thought, since we're the police, that it'd be a damn fine idea to check it out." The sarcasm was heavy in his voice. "Now, young man," He said to Joey, "I expect an answer to my question."

"I just—" Joey began, but the officer cut him off.

"Not here. I have some more patrol cars on the way. When they get here, we're taking you all down to the station for a few questions, including that one."

* * *

At the station, everyone waited as they were all questioned one-by-one, leaving after their respective interviews. The interviews began with those that were deemed by the officers as least likely to be useful, continuing with those that seemed more likely to know something; even police officers use the "save the best for last" method.

Naturally, Joey was the last of his friends to be interviewed. The gist of what the officers had heard up to this point was nothing but different spins on one basic story: this Joey kid told everyone they needed to leave and that the school was going to explode, both of which occurred. They were then all asked what had made them decide to leave the school. Michelle and Jackie said it was the look on Joey's face, they said it sent a chill through them and they knew they had to go. Everyone else, excluding Tyler and Andy, said it was the look on Michelle's face that did it for them. Tyler said, "I would never get laid again if I didn't listen to Cali. Plus, I was hungry and Joey offered to pay for anything I wanted. Guess that's not fuckin' happening." Andy's response was: "Joey said he'd give me a hundred dollars if the place didn't blow up. Dick."

Finally, it was time for the interview that would yield the most results. Officer Conner brought Michelle out from questioning and called Joey in.

"Wait for me?" Joey asked her.

"Sure," she said, "you're my ride."

They got into the interrogation room and Officer Conner introduced him to Officer Reily.

"Look," Joey said, "I don't know how I can tell you people what happened without sounding insane."

"Just do your best, son," Officer Conner told him.

"Okay," Joey said, "here it goes."

Joey told the officers as little as possible, but enough to give them a clear understanding of what had happened. He couldn't go into details. It would have taken much longer, and the more in depth the officers heard the story, the more they'd begin to not believe him. His intentions for the abridged version weren't met with success, however, as the officers decided to pry for the missing details.

"You said 'a fire started' but you didn't mention where," Officer Conner said.

"Does it really matter?" Joey asked. "All those people are still dead, regardless of where the damn fire started. Do you think that was on any of their minds before they died? 'Oh, I wonder where this deadly fire started.' Most of them probably had no idea it _was_ a fire that started it. Do you think that's what those peoples' families are worried about right now?"

"We need to know for investigative purposes," Officer Reily said.

"The clearing behind the school. There was a magnifying glass. The rays from the sun were magnified."

"And how do you know this?" Officer Reily asked.

"I had a vision, I told you. You're not trying to say I put it there are you?"

"Well," Officer Reily said, "you seem to be the only one that knows about it."

"How could I have planned this? There's no way I could have known when the wind would start blowing, and when the sun would have been out long enough to start the fire, and that the cafeteria workers would turn the gas on too high. How could I have known?"

"How could you have known that the school was going to explode?"

Joey sat there and stared at the man for a moment, floored by what was being implied. Finally, he said, "I had. A fucking. Vision."

"Are you on any sleeping pills? Anti-biotics? Do you do drugs? Smoke pot?"

"No! I'm not some kinda druggie looking to get some kind of vision. I didn't ask for this and I didn't do anything that could have caused it. Can I go now? Or do you have some other bullshit you'd like to accuse me of?"

"That'll be all for now," Officer Conner said, "you're free to go."

"Thank you," Joey said, trying to sound as impolite as possible.

When he left the room, he saw Michelle in the lobby waiting for him. Along with everyone else. He was sure they'd all gone home.

"I called them back here," Michelle said, "we need to talk about what happened. Together."

Joey looked around at the people he'd known as friends since middle school. Today, they didn't look like those people. Those people would never have looked at him with the accusing eyes he was seeing now. Almost none of them trusted him anymore. He contemplated whether talking about it now would be a good idea. He tried to play the conversation out in his head, and every way he tried, and argument was sparked. But against his better judgment, he nodded in agreement.

"Not here, though," he said, "I've had enough of this place."

They all went outside and stood in silence, waiting for someone to start.

"Fuck this," Tony said, and started to walk away.

"No," Michelle said, "wait."

He stopped, but he didn't turn around.

"Ok," she said to everyone, "maybe now wasn't the best time. I mean, it just happened a few hours ago. But we still need to talk about this. How about tomorrow? At the library? I figure a public place would be best, to stop any of us from saying anything drastic."

They all agreed to that and decided to meet at 1. Everyone departed in whatever car they'd arrived in and went home to rest for the day ahead. They had no idea how much they would truly need it.

* * *

Officers Conner and Reily were out in what remained of the woods with their flashlights, looking for the magnifying glass Joey had mentioned.

"I don't think it's out here," Officer Conner said, "we've been here for two hours. I think the kid just said it was out here to get out of there faster. You were kind of hard on him."

"That fucking kid could be responsible for what happened today," Officer Reily replied, "I'm wasn't going to risk not getting some information out of him. If that's what you call 'kind of hard' then yes, I was. Did you see that kids face. Just his eyes. Those were those were the eyes of someone who wanted to kill."

"Yeah, eyes that wanted to kill you. Anyone would look like they if they'd been put through what he'd been put through. I just don't think the kid did it."

Just then, his foot kicked something in the grass. He bent down and picked up the magnifying glass with a gloved hand, holding it in the flashlight for Officer Reily to see.

"Still don't think he did it?"

"This doesn't mean anything yet."


	6. Chapter 6

"Hang on a sec, babe," Tyler told Cali through the phone, "they got somethin about today on the news."

"—the horrible tragedy that occurred today. Two officers returned to the scene earlier this evening to further investigate the cause of the fire. They've isolated the cause to be this magnifying glass." A picture was displayed of a very charred magnifying glass. It had been burnt almost beyond recognition. Almost. Tyler recognized it instantly.

"Holy shit," he said, "it was me."

"Tyler," Cali said, "what the fuck are you talking about?"

"You're not watching?"

"No, why?"

"The magnifying glass Joey was talking about, the one that started the fire…it was mine, from last night."

"No, you took it with you!"

"No, I didn't. I only brought back the flash light. You knocked the fucking thing out of my hand the second time. I left it there."

"Are you saying it's _my_ fault now?"

"No, where the fuck did you get that? I just said it was my fault. I should never have—"

"Don't talk about it. I'm still pissed at you about that."

"This isn't about you, Cali. I'm responsible for what happened today."

"Whatever. I'll let you go have your little cry. I'll call you when I'm on my way tomorrow. Bye."

Tyler sat there for a moment, lamenting in this realization. The newswoman had continued feeding details to the viewers, but Tyler had tuned her out the moment he saw the magnifying glass. Looking back, he didn't understand how he'd never considered it. He knew where the fire started, he knew a magnifying glass started it, and he knew he was in that spot with a magnifying glass the night before. So why hadn't he put it together? He needed to call Joey, apologize for everything, tell him everything.

* * *

Joey had also been watching the news. He, too, instantly recognized the magnifying glass but for a different reason. Even though it was so many hours ago, he still recalled every moment of that vision as clearly as if he were having it right then. He was glad Michelle hadn't been around to see his reaction. It would have led to further conversation about what had happened, conversation he wasn't ready to have.

Michelle had gone to sleep shortly after they arrived back. Joey was now sitting next to the bed where she slept, thinking of everything. It was still hard to him to believe. He guessed it probably would, no matter how long he had to think about it. Suddenly, his phone rang and broke him out of his thoughts.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Joey," Tyler's voice exclaimed, "It's Tyler. Were you watching the news?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That magnifying glass. That was mine."

"What? How did it get there?"

"Well…" Tyler began. He told Joey about the horrible mistake he'd made the night before.

* * *

At the time, it didn't seem as if it would be so horrible. After all, who could have foreseen that the events that night would lead to the devastating strategy the next day?

During the tour, Tyler had seen the woods and instantly knew he was going to have a good time. He told Cali to meet him later, and it was all set in motion. He arrived in the clearing about 10 minutes before he'd told Cali to be there. He was armed with two things: a flashlight, and a magnifying glass. He waited behind a few trees for a while, waiting for his prey.

"Tyler," Cali called out, "where are you? I know you're out here. I saw your car on the road."

_Damn, _Tyler thought. It was a careless mistake, but he knew it wouldn't be a problem. He knew that Cali only ever thought things through when she was really scared. He just needed her to take a few steps further so he could really put the scare in her.

"Tyler," she said, "I swear if you don't come out right now, I'll—"

She was right where he needed her to be. He jumped from behind the tree, holding the flashlight under his chin and the magnifying glass in front of his face, releasing a manic yell to really add to the fright. It worked like a charm.

Cali was in a state of fear she'd never experienced before. She actually began to turn and start running until Tyler grabbed her arm. He was trying to keep her from leaving, and the move worked better than he'd expected. Her arm being grabbed only scared her more and she collapsed in place on the ground. Tyler laughed so hard that he fell on the ground with her, rolling from the joy brought on by how much better this had turned out than he'd expected. Cali quickly realized what was going on and her mood changed from frightened to outraged.

"Bastard," she exclaimed, "you know how much I hate it when you scare me. What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Though it was a rhetorical question, it was clear that she expected an answer. The only answer she got was the continuing sound of Tyler's laughter.

"Fuck you," she said and began to walk away.

He composed himself quickly, picked up the flashlight and magnifying glass, and ran after her.

"Cali," he said, "come back! It was just a joke."

"I know what it was. It just wasn't funny." She slowed down, but showed no sign of stopping.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't think it'd be this grea—I mean bad. Just wait a minute"

She stopped without turning to him. She didn't need to. He came up to her and turned her around, leaning down to match his eyes with her.

"Look," Tyler said, "I'm sorry. It was stupid. Let's just forget all about this and go back to my place and…"

She looked at him, her face not breaking from its expression. Then she smiled. "Okay, let's go."

They began to walk away, Tyler using his flashlight so they could make their way safely.

He stopped. "Hey, Cali?"

"Yeah?"

He brought the flashlight and magnifying glass back up again and let out a short shout. She jumped slightly but was nowhere near as scared as she'd been a few minutes ago.

"You dick!" she punched his arm as hard as she could – it just happened to be the one with the magnifying glass – and it hit him with so much force that he dropped what would soon become a fire starter. She started to walk away again and he ran after her, forgetting all about the dropped magnifying glass.

* * *

"So," Tyler said, "we left and had a great rest of the night. I never even gave it a separate thought."

"Look," Joey said. He was now leaning on his counter, processing what he'd just heard, "This was clearly an accident. We just have to go to the police and tell them what happened. It'll answer their question about where the magnifying glass had come from. Tomorrow, we'll—"

"No, we can't go to them. Do you know what the charge for manslaughter is? Now multiply that by tens of thousands. I can't afford to deal with that. I have a big future ahead of me."

"First off, what the fuck kind of future do you have? And second, I'm pretty sure this doesn't count as manslaughter. You might get some fine for the forest being burned, but that's it."

"I'm not taking any chances. I won't do good in jail. I'm too pretty!"

"Tyler, shut up. We'll talk about this tomorrow. We don't have to go to the police tomorrow, but we'll talk about the options more tomorrow. You are still coming right?"

"Yeah, Cali's getting a ride from me."

"Ok, then, I'll see you tomorrow."


End file.
